Idaho

We left Heber City headed north into Idaho.  I was very glad I made reservations at the park...booked up due to a boating event at a nearby lake.  After a one-night stopover, off north again to see the Craters of the Moon National Monument. 

Craters of the Moon

An eerie landscape, much like the volcanic scenery on the Big Island, Hawaii.  

Volcanic vent with ice in the bottom.

During the winter, water and snow collect in the bottom of these vents.  It's cold in these parts during the winter so it all freezes into a solid mass.  Since the sun rarely penetrates into the depth, the ice remains.  It's a strange feeling to be in 95+ weather and see the blue-green of the ice in these vents.

There are beautiful patches of flowers growing out of the volcanic rock just about everywhere you look.  I was surprised to learn that the volcanic activity was as recent as 2,000 years ago and that this field may become active again at any time.

North Fork and the Salmon River

We stayed in Arco at a small RV park one night and then pushed on to North Fork, ID, to a small RV park.  The owner and his wife do everything, including running a small restaurant on the property to serve park guests on an "as ordered" basis.  There are only nine spaces; the park backs up to the North Fork of the Salmon River, cold, clear, beautiful river which eventually feeds into the main Salmon.

This is what we saw from the park every day:

Mike and the dogs at Josephine's RV Park.  The North Fork of the Salmon River is right behind them.

There's a town named Stanley a couple of hours away which has both the Salmon River and the Sawtooth Wilderness as attractions.  Drove up there one day for lunch.

Speaking of lunch, Mike and I toss a coin to see who pays for lunch.  As it happens, we are using a Coffeyville Centennial coin given to me by a lady in the park who lived in Sedan for many many years.  Mike has lost two of the last three; he thinks somehow  I am cheating because it's a Coffeyville coin.  I just think he's a sore loser...

Our second day in the area, we drove a loop which took us north, then east, south, west and then back north, in order to climb to Lemhi Pass.

We took a shortcut, a gravel county road, to get to the main road to the pass.  No one but us and the cows, until we topped a small rise and saw two people on bicycles by the side of the road.  Mike stopped to ask of they needed help.  They were from New Zealand and had BIKED from Lordsburg, NM, 70 miles west of Deming, NM, to where we saw them in southern Montana.  Fun talking with them.  They had flown to El Paso with their bikes, taken a bus to Lordsburg, and headed out.  More power to them....I prefer the truck and a trailer.  Mike parted with two cold beers for them and they were on their way.

Lewis and Clark and Lemhi Pass

View to the west from Lemhi Pass.

Loved the color of these wild flowers at the top of the pass.

Lewis speculated that the rivers on the western side of the continental divide would be both larger and much wilder than the rivers encountered in the trek up the Missouri.  He was SO RIGHT.

Lewis and Clark started down the Salmon.  The early going was acceptable but as they got further down, the river got faster and full of rapids.  Not navigable with the boats available to them.

The last day in the area, we drove 47 miles from Highway 93 to a place called Corn Creek, following the Salmon all day.  The first 17 miles were blacktop, so not too bad.  And then it became gravel and washboard.  Took us four hours to get to Corn Creek, and we were dodging trucks, trailers, cars, ATVs, you name it.  At some points, the road is only one lane wide so you hope there's a turn-out you can get to if there's on-coming traffic.  

We thought it very strange that there was nearly no one on the river for miles and miles and miles on a day which topped 100 degrees.  As we got closer to Corn Creek, the road was lined on both sides with trucks/trailers, the pick-up teams for rafters/kayakers/canoeists coming down the Middle Fork of the Salmon.  

And one other hazard on the river road:  goats.  These charming idiots have no fear of humans or trucks.  One ran in front of the truck, down the middle of the road, for probably a mile or more. Every time he started over to one side and Mike tried to pass him, he moved back to the center.  

I have far too many photos of the Salmon River to post them all but here are a couple I can't omit:

The Middle Fork Joins the Salmon.